


Cut To The Feeling

by AppleTeeth



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gay Pride, M/M, sweet and silly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 08:20:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19884535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AppleTeeth/pseuds/AppleTeeth
Summary: Bruce really wants to go to this year's Pride Parade but he doesn't want to if Thor won't accompany him. A short and sweet story about Thor and Bruce going to their first Pride together (and Tony being a great ally).





	Cut To The Feeling

It was a stupid argument and Tony couldn’t believe it was continuing. They had been through the same conversation at least five times now and it was starting to affect them in terms of getting work done. They were supposed to be finally constructing Bruce’s new invention to help create clean water across the globe, but they hit a snag when Bruce had mentioned that he had hoped, sort of, maybe, possibly, that it would be nice if he went to Pride this year. 

Of course he talked himself out of it as soon as he finished his sentence and now they were stuck in a loop where Tony couldn’t stand to see Bruce stop himself from doing something he wanted to do for the sake of fear, and Bruce couldn’t understand why it was being brought up in the first place.

“Because you want to go,” Tony continued from where they had left off a few tense moments ago.

Undeniable, only Bruce was obviously going to deny it. 

“I don’t. I just had a momentary lapse in judgement and now I’m fine.”

Tony paused long enough for Bruce to think the matter was settled, but really he was trying to think of a different tactic if they were going to avoid the same conversation yet again.

“Well, what made you think you wanted to go?”

 _Damn, he’s trying a different tactic._ Bruce sighed and shrugged with a small smile.

“I thought… it would be nice to go out and celebrate. It’s taken me a long time to realise who I am and who I love and to join everyone else out on the streets and be counted as part of this community, it…”

He trailed off, because he had fallen for Tony’s trap and now he was starting to reconsider his decision. He vowed to wipe that shit-eating grin off of his friend’s face or die trying.

“And what made you change your mind?”

“Because… I’m an old man. This isn’t for me. And I’d want…” the word was at the tip of his tongue and he just had to say it before he forgot how to speak altogether, “...Thor to be there.”

“Why can’t he be there? You don’t think he’d love a chance to party? Last time I checked, his whole civilisation was built on banquets and drinking.”

Bruce shook his head sadly. “Sometimes he doesn’t...get… my sexuality.”

Protective best friend mode activated and Tony practically raised his fists in preparation to fight a god.

“What?! What did he say?”

“No, no, no… Stand down, Iron Man. I mean, being gay or bi or trans or anything on Asgard is so normal and part of their culture that to acknowledge it, let alone celebrate it, is odd to them. It would be us celebrating the fact that we eat food.”

“Those are called State Fairs,” Tony interjected. 

“I only figured out exactly who I was once we had already starting dating and when I told him I was bi he seemed unphased until I explained that it was a big fucking deal to me. Maybe going to a Pride festival would just be too alien to him?”

“Maybe, but he also seems to like you, for some inexplicable reason, so he might want to go to help you celebrate being happy for the first time in your fucking life.”

Bruce laughed despite himself because whilst that wasn’t entirely true, it was pretty damn close. 

“Can’t you go with me instead?” he tried not to plead, but he was getting desperate.

“No, because I am tragically heterosexual and this is your day. Plus the press will lose their shit.”

“Ah, see!” Bruce said excitedly, waving a finger, finally finding a logical way to back out. “The press would have a field day seeing me and Thor together! We’ve not come out officially as a couple and we’ll stir a lot of pots if we’re spotted.”

“So you don’t join any of the floats, what’s the big deal? People mistake any big and blonde muscles for Thor and barely anyone recognises you because you don’t do the press circuits with us. And if anyone spots you, it will be nothing but good press because you can say you’re there to celebrate love in all forms and that’s what freedom is all about, yadda yadda. Straight celebrities love to hijack this shit.”

“Great, I’ll be a hijacker…” Bruce said with a grimace.

“Or, you’ll be a hero to a lot of kids out there who think supers are all big and macho and otherworldly.”

“To be fair, Thor definitely is all of those things.” 

And by saying those words, Bruce didn’t need a response from Tony. He had already made Tony’s point stronger because he could only imagine being a lonely queer kid seeing someone like Thor celebrating Pride and his damn heart was swelling at the thought. 

“I think he’ll want to go, if just for you.”

He shook his head. He was getting nervous again at the prospect of asking, because if Thor said no Bruce knew he would be devastated.

And dammit, because Tony then asked him the most logical question as a follow-up that this time, Bruce had definitely lost the argument.

“Have you even tried asking him?”

\---

Bruce found Thor up on the roof of the complex, watering the plants he had started growing after he became fascinated by Earth botany. Bruce had helped him to start off with but now Thor was the resident expert and when not training, being an Asgardian diplomat or battling with his teammates, he was up on the roof looking after a whole array of plants from across the globe. It was oddly charming and made for great paparazzi fodder when he was snapped buying armfuls of plants and gardening equipment.

“Bruce!” Thor said excitedly, waving at him from where he was kneeling next to a large bed of blooming plants. His boyfriend walked over and he kissed Bruce tenderly. “Look at this corpse flower I just planted!”

“Do I want to know why it’s called a corpse flower?” he asked as his eyes followed Thor’s excited pointing towards a long-stemmed plant with lots of leaves protruding at the top.

“Because when it flowers, it smells like rotting flesh,” Thor said with a grin. “I mean, it will stink out this whole area. It’s going to be amazing!”

Bruce smiled awkwardly, not wanting to put a damper on how excited Thor sounded. 

“That’s awesome, Thor,” he said.

Thor could tell Bruce was wanting to tell him something because his eyes had dropped to the ground and his hands were twisting together in a way that showed he was incredibly nervous. Usually he only looked that way when they were debating as a team and he wanted to speak up and disagree. 

“What brings you up, here, my love?”

“Oh… I just…” _Dammit, why can’t Tony be here to help?_ “I wanted to ask you something.”

“Of course,” Thor said, wiping his hands on his jeans and standing up. “Ask me anything.”

“So… there’s this celebration going on this weekend.”

“A birthday?” Thor guessed.

“No. It’s…it’s...” he was stammering and he hated when he fucking stammered. Bruce huffed loudly and tried to stop his tongue from jamming to the roof of his mouth.

“You know about earth traits and how we as a species are less tolerant than Asgard?”

“Sadly, yes,” Thor said and Bruce carried on before Thor stuck up for Earth to explain how humans were just complex and they had good inside them, despite what others may think. He was always defending his adopted planet. 

“So people who don’t just love the opposite sex and people who do not conform to presumed gender tropes and people who don’t find attraction in others as they are told they should….”

“Ah yes, the L-G-B-T-Q plus,” Thor said, sounding off every letter carefully to make sure he got it right.

“Yes. Well they, we, have a parade to celebrate our diversity and to let the world know we are out there in society and deserve the same rights they do. It started as a march for our rights and… well, it still is, but it’s also a celebration as well and it’s called Pride and I really think Iwanttogo and I was hoping if youcouldcomewithme.”

It took a few seconds to extrapolate the last part of that sentence and then Thor smiled.

“I would love to go.”

“Really?” Bruce practically squeaked because he was still a little winded from his speech.

“A party to celebrate diversity on this planet? It sounds marvelous. Will you be happy telling people you are bisexual?”

The fact that Thor even remembered the word was heavenly enough. For him to affirm Bruce’s sexuality made his heart soar.

“I think I’m ready, yes.”

“Then I am ready too!” Thor declared. “I will be proud to declare myself as queer to our community.”

“Is that what you want to be known as?” Bruce asked curiously, squeezing Thor’s hands affectionately, dirt be damned. 

“My sexuality and gender is far too complex for human understanding, so I think this is a nice umbrella term, yes.”

Bruce chuckled and motioned for Thor to reach down a little so he could kiss him on the cheek fondly. 

“Thank you. This means a lot.”

“Of course! Now, how does one dress to such a parade?”

Bruce chuckled and shrugged. “Uh, however you want? It’s not really got a dress-code, but I was hoping to wear lots of colours. You know, the opposite to what I usually wear? But not… I mean…”

“You want to dress your best,” Thor nodded knowingly. “Then I shall take my cue from you and do the same.”

“No, you can wear… whatever you like,” he responded lamely, then took a seat on the edge of one of the raised flowerbeds. “Who am I kidding? I don’t know. I’ve never been before.”

Thor took a moment before he sat down next to Bruce, gathering up his hands that were back to wringing together. 

“Why are you so nervous? It’s a party to celebrate being yourself; what does it matter how you dress?”

He was right, of course, and he could easily agree and calm down. But this was nearly fifty years of self-hatred he was contesting with, and god knows it won most of the time. 

He hadn’t said a word for long enough for Thor to know he was in his head, so Thor pressed a kiss to his temple. 

“This clearly means a lot to you.”

“Ugh, but it shouldn’t, it’s a stupid parade that has been overrun with corporations and there’s fractions who try to exclude others and in-fighting and it’s just an excuse to drink and wear stupid clothes--”

“And yet, it is a day called pride, so we can celebrate however we please. Show me examples of what it looks like, and maybe we can decide what to do and what to wear?”

That seemed to have the opposite reaction to what Thor has hoped, as Bruce took back his hands to put his head in them. 

“Stop being so perfect,” he muttered, half-joking and half-exasperated. 

Thor laughed and poked Bruce in the shoulder to get him to look up.

“You first.”

“I expected this conversation to go, oh, about ten to the power of infinity times worse than this. I’m trying to process happiness, give me a minute.”

Thor nodded and, trying his best to be sly, he pulled out his tablet and started to search for images using certain words such as Pride, Pride Parade, Pride costume and LGBTQ+.

“Can I wear this?”

Thor put the tablet under Bruce’s nose and got the reaction he had hoped for as Bruce burst out laughing, lifting his head to remove his glasses just so he could laugh some more without getting them wet from tears.

“Where did you find that?!”

“I was also fond of this…”

Another howl of laughter and this time Bruce nodded urgently.

“Please, I will _literally_ pay you to dress like Billy Porter at the Met Gala.”

“Well, I may tone it down a little, no procession or being carried…”

“No no, you need it all. Bird wings, half-naked men carrying you, gold everywhere, the lot.”

Thor laughed. “Gold did always suit me."

\---

Three things of note happened at Pride. 

Firstly, Thor dressed far more conservatively than he had joked, although that still meant gold surfer shorts, rainbow flags painted on his cheeks and a very tight t-shirt which read, to Bruce’s horror/amusement, NO COPS AT PRIDE, ONLY THOR.

“Tony made it,” he said happily.

Bruce was wearing purple trousers, a t-shirt patterned with the colours of the bisexual-pride flag and sneakers covered in glitter that, again, had been gifted by Tony. 

“Purple?” Thor asked in amusement. 

“What? I like them,” he said defensively. 

Secondly, they stayed among the crowds of people watching the floats go by and managed to stay unnoticed for around an hour, until a very nervous teenager asked them if they were who they thought they were.

“Yes, it is us!” Thor shouted, grabbing Bruce around the waist. “We are here to celebrate our Pride” (the word was clearly capitalised) “and our relationship!”

The ripple effect as people realised who they were was quicker than expected, and before they even had a chance to consider, the crowd were urging them and the barriers were being opened for them to join in with the parade.

“What flag is this?” Thor asked as he was passed one.

“The trans flag,” someone informed him.

“Excellent!” And he waved it enthusiastically. Bruce was overwhelmed for a few moments before he began to wave a rainbow flag, smiling fondly at people who looked just as surprised to see him there as he felt.

Thirdly, and the one that garnered the most attention, was when Bruce could feel that voice in his head growing louder. Usually that meant he was frustrated, angry or scared and Hulk took that to mean something or someone needed smashing and he had to talk him down. This time, though, the voice was more… pleading? He had experienced it a few times, mainly when he was eating something sweet or the team was training, and figured out what exactly it meant.

“Hulk wants to join in,” Bruce realised out-loud.

“What?” Thor shouted over the music.

“Hulk, he wants… to be in the parade,” he finished lamely.

“Then let him out!”

“I’m not letting the other guy out in a crowd of people! They’ll think he’s here to destroy things.”

“I’ll explain to him, like when we saw those dogs in the park. He’ll be gentle.”

 _Hulk be good, Hulk want to see nice people_ , the voice rumbled urgently.

Bruce sighed. _Please be gentle. These people are like us; they have been hurt before and can get scared easily._

_Hulk promise!_

Without a word, Bruce handed Thor his t-shirt and shoes and stepped away from the others. 

The reaction was immediate and very, very loud. Several shrieks of surprise followed by even louder cheers of applause drowned out even the baseline of the music from the nearby float. Hundreds of phones were pointed in Hulk’s direction and as he came to his senses, he began grinning like a child, waving the flag happily. 

“Hulk proud!” he shouted which caused another eruption. What he was proud of wasn’t to be known, but the people loved it all the same. He walked with the parade for several blocks, smiling and laughing at everyone who shouted his name and even leaning down to take selfies with people.

The only moment of contention came when they walked past a few anti-Pride protesters. Even a low growl was enough to make them shake in terror and Thor had to guide him away before they made him any angrier. The laughter that followed was infectious and within minutes a clip of that interaction would be blowing up on social media. 

“Can Bruce come back, big guy?” Thor asked Hulk gently. “He wants to enjoy the parade too.”

Usually this was something to negotiate with him and would take a long time to convince him. This time, however, he nodded happily. 

“Banner want Thor!”

Amidst a chorus of “awww”’s, Bruce returned to himself and held onto Thor as he came back to his senses. Thor kissed him gently on the forehead and then hooked his arm around him so they could continue on. 

“What did I miss?” Bruce asked blankly as he quickly threw his shoes and t-shirt back on. The purple trousers had a lot of stretch to them as they seemed to have held together.

“Hulk wanted to smash some homophobic assholes!” one guy called out and a lot of people laughed. 

Thor thought Bruce would look horrified at hearing that, but instead he smiled very faintly and declared, “Good.”

\-----

Tony had seen some of the highlights on social media and, knowing they had finally returned back to the tower, was buzzing was excitement at the thought of rubbing it in Bruce’s meek and self-hating face. 

He entered Bruce’s floor with a smug face that faded very quickly into a bemused grin. 

Two dozen or more people were in the open plan living room, taking up every flat surface as they sat in a circle and chatter merrily. Bruce and Thor were sitting on the coffee table, enraptured in conversation with two teenagers who looked like they were spilling their hearts out. Music was playing in the background and it seemed enough food had been ordered to call it a banquet.

“Good Pride?” Tony asked, trying to keep his face neutral as his friends looked up suddenly. 

“Hey, Iron Man is here!” Bruce shouted and the crowd cheered. “He was the one who convinced me to go.”

“These are some of the people we met at the Parade.” Thor enthusiastically pointed out, as if Tony had missed them all. “A lot of them needed somewhere to stay for the night and we said they could come here.”

A young trans boy piped up nervously, “Well, I was planning on sleeping on a bench…”

“And you’re not doing that ever again,” Bruce warned and sounded more like a dad than Tony had ever heard him. 

“We’re making sure they’re all going to be okay,” Thor explained. “Apparently there are charities we can donate to. Stark, can we set up something?”

Tony nodded weakly, his guard falling. “Sure… Uh, kids, help yourselves. I’ve got spare rooms if anyone needs them?”

“Thanks,” Bruce said warmly. “Come sit with us and hang out.”

“Oh no, this is your thing…”

Some people yelled in protest and Bruce said over them, “You are my biggest ally and I want you here.”

Still trying not to laugh, Tony sat down on the arm of one of the sofas and shook the hand of a girl looking just as bemused by the days turns of events as he felt. 

_Next year we’re getting a fucking float._

**Author's Note:**

> Obviously, Thor and Bruce would adopt a bunch of queer kids with Tony's help, I couldn't help myself. Title is Cut To The Feeling by Carly Rae Jepsen because it's my Pride theme. :)


End file.
